Writers! Sign-up for Twitter and Discover the Art of Self-Promotion

We don’t have the choice anymore. We all need this skill.

You’re a writer and just started using Twitter?

Good! That’s where you should be.

You’ll find lots of tips, prompts, and ideas there. But you can find these anywhere on the web.

You’ll also be part of the #WritingCommunity. It’s thriving and full of amazing people. But, again, you can find a community of writers elsewhere on the web, for example, on this platform.

The real advantage of Twitter is that it will teach you the basics of marketing. Forget the writer’s block; more important to overcome is the self-promoting block.

If you don’t talk about your articles, then why would anybody?

Self-promotion is something writers often forget. We think (hope?) that our pieces are so good, people will want to read them and even share them with their friends. They might be that good, but the competition is fierce.

7.5 million blog posts are published every day. So, helping readers find your work with a bit of self-promotion cannot hurt!

Twitter and its never-ending list of self-promoting hashtags (#ShamelessSelfPromoSunday and friends) will teach you the ropes.

Any time is #ShamelessSelfpromoTime on Twitter.

Sunday’s the best day for Shameless Self Promo. Others include:

• #ShamelessSelfpromoSaturday
• #ShamelessSelfpromoWednesday
• #ShamelessSelfpromoFriday
• #ShamelessSelfpromoFriday
• #ShamelessSelfpromoThursday
• #ShamelessSelfpromoMonday

Fun fact, I linked all these hashtags to tweets I sent. Few will click, but it doesn’t matter. It’s part of my self-promotion training!

Fun fact #2, I wrote Friday twice to catch your attention. Did it work?

On a more serious note, the choice of words is interesting. Using shameless in the hashtag implies that, by default, a self-promotion is a shameful act. Maybe so. But without it, our writings have much fewer chances to be read.

Let’s not forget that writing is already very audacious. Writers need to be brave to put their thoughts on the page and share them with the world. Compared to that, self-promotion is only a tiny additional step.

Take the #writerslift

Another classical hashtag used by members of Twitter’s writing community is #WritersLift.

It’s in particular used by newcomers to build a following. But it can also be an opportunity to practice your self-promoting skills.

Here’s an example:

As you can see, the engagement is very high: 222 likes and 174 comments. Most of them are from other writers dropping links to their blogs, articles, or books.

Go on Twitter, if only for a week.

It will act as a marketing boot camp, and you’ll get rid of your fear/shame/doubts about self-promotion.

Everybody’s doing it there.

It’s usually not so efficient in terms of traffic generation, but that’s not the point. Not at the beginning.

First, you want to overcome the self-promoting block.

Once you’re past it and don’t hesitate anymore to drop links to your articles, newsletters, and whatnot, we can talk about the strategies to increase self-promotion’s efficiency.

Takeaway

Nothing beats practice.

Here’s a self-promoting challenge for you: send me a direct message on Twitter with a link to your latest article!

If self-promoting is easy for you, drop a link to your latest article in the comments. And if it’s hard, you might relate to this one: